Alexander Bernstein

This article was written by fellow lamp engineer and collector Edward J. Covington, and originally appeared on his own website of biographical sketches of persons involved in the lamp industry. Following his passing in February 2017, and with kind permission of his family, Ed's words have been preserved here in the hope of maintaining access to his writings for the benefit of subsequent generations.

Biography
The writer knows very little about Alexander Bernstein. What is presented below is simply information extracted from the patent literature, and could be in error – or simply wrong. The reader is therefore cautioned.

One can surmise that Bernstein was born in Germany. His first patent in 1882 placed him in New York City. When his second patent was issued in 1882 he resided in Boston. When his U.S. Patent 273,704 was issued in Mar 1883 the Bernstein Electric Light Manufacturing Company had been formed. His patent application was submitted in Jan 1883, so it is reasonable to assume that the company had been formed in 1882. While the manufacturing facilities were in Boston it is believed the company was incorporated in the State of Maine.

Bernstein apparent went to England because that was the address given on U.S. Patent 343,266, granted Jun 8 1886. He had applied for it on Mar 4 1886. One U.S. Patent was granted in 1887 and another in 1890, while he resided in London.

It appears Bernstein then spent some time in Berlin because that was his stated residence when two U.S. patents were issued to him. The dates of application on those patents were Dec 1894 and Jan 1896. Apparent Bernstein changed his area of interest though because those two patents dealt with food products. It is believed, however, that the Bernstein Company continued with its incandescent lamp production during this time.

Alexander Bernstein apparently moved back to Boston and applied for a patent on Jun 12 1897. It was granted on Aug 31 1897 (U.S. Patent 589,155). It, too, dealt with preparing food articles from milk.

It is believed the Bernstein Company was absorbed into the National group about 1901 when it was formed.